Little Time To Prepare
Sometimes you have all the time in the world to prepare for a competition and well, other times, that’s not the case. It’s a little different when you’re invited to your very first airgun competition and have very little time to prepare. Do you decline or accept? Unless you are ridiculously competitive and can’t with any fiber in your body accept this as a learning opportunity, you should accept.
There are a few decisions to make before making your appearance.
- Choose an air rifle
- An optic
- The best ammunition
Choose A Setup
The rifle of choice is the FX Dynamic Express 600mm in .30 caliber. The optic is the Hawke Vantage FFP 4-16X50 and the ammunition, the AEA Center Punch 45 grain pellets. After sighting in your Dynamic at 35 yards, per what the invitee instructed you to do, you sent him the velocity you’ve achieved. The next thing he tells you to do is to learn your DOPE and your response is, “What is my DOPE?”
Again, you’ve never been to a competition before, there’s not much time to prepare nor practice. Here’s what you do, chalk this one up as a learning experience and go to your first competition with your setup as is, no DOPE necessary.
It’s time to get familiar with the environment, the layout, and your future competitors/friends. After some introductions and small talk you try to soak up what the others may suggest or drop hints to take with you throughout the day.
The Course
There are seven lanes and all the shooters are divided up into seven “teams” who will rotate from lane to lane until all competitors have shot at each lane. The targets vary in size and distance.
This is where using your DOPE comes in but since there wasn’t time to do so, you take a couple minutes before the competition begins to see where your impact is at sixty yards so you can make an educated guess at the varying distanced targets.
While enjoying the camaraderie and the challenge you’re learning more than you ever expected. The tools you’ll have to put in your arsenal for your future competitions are growing with every squeeze of the trigger.
The Final Results
The final results surprised you because you finished better than you expected, a little lower than the middle and not last. Now that you are familiar with what to expect for the next go around, you have nothing but time and growth! It’s all up from here!
It’s not over, now you get to decide a few things.
- Did you enjoy it enough to do it again?
- Are you pleased with the setup?
- What type of competitions would you like to attend?
- Find out when and where the next one is and sign up!
When it all comes down to it, the equipment used is only as good as the one behind it. Relevant practice is key and it’s time to put your nose to the grindstone. One can have the best equipment but be the worst operator and when all is said and done all they’ve done is finish last and spent the most money. I guess the only thing left to say is good luck and shoot straight!
